Judge Suggests Videotape Policy

October 3, 2002|By Paula McMahon Staff Writer

After days of hearing conflicting versions of what happened in a Broward Sheriff's Office interrogation room 11 years ago, a federal judge in Miami suggested Wednesday that the agency should start videotaping its interrogations.

At a hearing that could set convicted cop killer Tim Brown free, a detective testified that he watched two of his colleagues interview Brown for about 20 minutes out of an hours-long interview and saw no misconduct by the officers.

Brown says former Detectives James Carr and Eli Thomasevich beat and coerced him into falsely confessing to the 1990 murder of Deputy Patrick Behan. Carr and Thomasevich deny any wrongdoing, and their colleague, Detective Frank Ilarazza, said they did nothing illegal during the short period he watched them.

U.S. District Judge Donald Graham seemed bemused when he heard that Ilarazza watched and listened to the interview on a TV monitor in another room, but there was no video recorder in the room.

"Don't you think it would be a great idea to have a video recorder?" the judge asked him.

Sheriff's Office policy does not include videotaping interviews, Ilarazza replied, adding that he personally favors taping his interrogations. He said some detectives support it but interviews are rarely videotaped.

"Since you already have the monitors, a $200 video recorder would do it," Graham said. "And you have a new state-of-the-art building that doesn't have that? It would make my job much easier and it would make jurors' jobs much easier."

The judge suggested that videotaping detectives' interactions with suspects would permit juries and judges to watch the interviews and make their own objective findings about what happened.

"I just think a $200 video recorder and a $2 video running in it would likely have saved us all this time and effort," the judge said.

The Sheriff's Office spent $250,000 in 10 months during the past two years on an undercover investigation of a new suspect in the Behan murder. In that investigation, detectives used concealed cameras in several locations to videotape Andrew Johnson saying that he shot Behan. He has since recanted.

Graham isn't the first to suggest that the Sheriff's Office should capture its important interrogations on tape. Earlier this year, Broward State Attorney Mike Satz told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he would prefer if police in his jurisdiction would videotape all interviews with suspects. He told all agencies it would help to eliminate potential future legal challenges.

But a number of agencies, including the Sheriff's Office, continue to videotape only some interviews.

In other testimony Wednesday, the man who admitted Brown to the juvenile detention center after his confession said records show he did not notice any injuries on Brown. Brown said he had a bruised face, a split lip and a bruised side from where Carr hit him twice. But defense attorneys noted that the worker, Gregory Mitchell, also didn't see a scar Brown has on his side.

The hearing should conclude Tuesday. Graham will rule whether Brown's constitutional rights have been violated and, if he finds they were, he could release Brown from prison pending a new trial.

Paula McMahon can be reached at pmcmahon@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4533.